PayPal Incorrectly Limits Indian Accounts Over Different Name on PAN Issue, Here is How To Fix it

Rewinding: In order to comply with RBI guidelines, PayPal enforced two deadly rules for all Indian PayPal accounts. First, Indian users must empty entire PayPal funds to their bank accounts within 7 days of receiving a payment. Second and the worst of all, Indian users can never use funds in their PayPal account to buy goods, pay bills or even send the money to someone else. It is a one way street, the ($) can check in any time she likes but she can not be transferred to a PayPal account of someone else’s. Unless you have a credit card linked to your PayPal account, Indian users can never send money, buy goods or pay for services.

In last couple of months, PayPal quietly rolled out auto withdrawal of Payments and waved off withdrawal fees for Indian users. This came as a surprise for many, since Indian users are not used to hear good news about PayPal’s changing policies and rules every now and then.

No sooner I realized that Okay, things have settled down, I can now peacefully go back to work, here he comes again.

A lot of Indian users are facing a typical problem of Invalid name on PAN, while the truth is that their names are actually same on both their PayPal accounts and PAN card. There is no way anyone can change their name on a PAN card which has already been registered with Govt of India, while on the other hand PayPal limits specific Indian accounts saying that Your PAN card is invalid.

The result is that until and unless a valid Pan number is added to a PayPal account, the user can not receive a payment. Makes no sense at all!

The Problem of Name Verification In PayPal and Indian PAN Card

Few days back, I logged into my Gmail account and was shocked to see an email from PayPal stating that my PayPal account has been limited from receiving payments.

My initial reaction was Wait, what? I have already added my PAN number in PayPal, along with my Bank details, home address and a purpose code for withdrawing payments. Everything was fine just the other day, what happened all of a sudden? I will first check my PayPal account and see whether everything is fine or not

When I logged into my PayPal account, I saw this big red notification Your PayPal account access is limited

For the sake of checking the receiving status of funds, I called up a friend who lives in U.S and asked him to send a small payment at my PayPal address.

Dang!

My friend could not send the payment and PayPal showed him this message:

So here is my PAN card (which can be registered only once in a lifetime).

And here is what I see when I try to update my PAN on my PayPal account:

If you are going through a similar situation, let me assure you that it is not your fault. This is probably a glitch in PayPal’s PAN verification system and there is no possible way to get over this other than convince PayPal staff that your PAN is correct and no action is possible from your side.

Here are a couple of things I did, in order to remove the PayPal PAN restriction:

1. Follow @AskPayPal on Twitter and tweet your problem to him. This guy is faster than the tech support staff of PayPal and he will surely respond to your Tweet.

2. Take out your camera and click images of your PAN card, Bank pass book and your Indian citizenship voter card. This is important, as the photo on your Indian voter card and the photo on your PAN will prove that you are the same person.

My PayPal account has been restricted from receiving Payments. The cause stated in your email [date] is that my PAN was found to be invalid. The truth however, is that my PAN is valid and my name is same on my Bank Pass book, PayPal account and my PAN card. There is no way I can change my name with any of these organizations.

I have attached five documents as email attachments, let me know if the photocopies or scanned copies of any of these documents needs to be shipped at a physical address.

Enclosure:

A. The name as it appears on my PayPal account.
B. The Name as it appears on the income tax website.
C. The name as it appears on my Bank pass book and bank cheque book.
D. The name as it appears in my PAN card (Photo identification).
E. My Voter ID card which proves that I am an Indian citizen (photo identification).

Please let me know what should I do now.

4. Hold on for a day or two and you should hear from PayPal soon. In my case, they sent me an email stating that Your PayPal account has been restored.

Thanks for writing this detailed post. I have the same issue and I contacted them on Twitter and also sent them emails. They kept telling that they are “looking into the matter” but somehow still didn’t lifted restriction on my account.
I have a business acoount and I have submitted my PAN where my personal name is there. My business name and PayPal match and I’ve received payments from PayPal till August.
What’s your suggestion now?
Shall I open a new Personal PayPal account by my name?

I have a different problem. My pan was verified and I was receiving and withdrawing payments fine until 20 March 2012.
Now all of a sudden, when I went to the PayPal withdrawal page, there is this red notification stating – Your PAN is pending Verification. Once verified you will be able to withdraw funds to your Bank account.
I did not even receive an email notification regarding this and only knew because I have funds in the account and I tried to withdraw.
I have called/emailed and what not to the PayPal support staff, and they are ‘looking into the matter’ for the past 10 days. Result – nada, can’t withdraw still. Don’t know what else to do.

Hello Dear,
I’m from Bangladesh & I’ve a paypal account that was created as Cyprus address & country. because you know paypal does not support Bangladesh country, but we need paypal everyday for paying many bills over internet. so I created my paypal account as cyprus country more than 2 years ago. After that I verified my paypal account by adding vcc. there was no problem till 11th june, 2012.

On 11th june, 2012 I had 50 usd in my paypal balance & that day I got fund 3 times and that was 0.01 & 0.50 & 450 usd. after that I sent 260 usd to my friends account. then my paypal balance was more than 240 usd. in same day at evening time I got email from paypal that my account is limited. then I logged into paypal & saw they asked me to update 5 questions for unlimited my paypal. And that 5 update is:

then I changed my password & security questions answers & this tow row is showing ok with gren color. but first 2 updates I didn’t do coz, I dont have cyprus ID or utility bill to send.

is there any solution for my account coz I’ve more than 240 usd in my account & I agree to spend some money to get back my paypal. where I can get the ID & bill, is anyone can make fake Cyprus id & bill as my account address ??

Please help me I really need the money & as a Bangladeshi 240 usd equal 19680 BDT that is a big amount for me. Please send me email if any solution you have.